Microsoft to raise prices on enterprise software and cloud services in the UK

Following the fall in the pound's value, Microsoft has decided to increase prices on its enterprise software and cloud services.

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Microsoft has announced that, in the wake of Brexit, it will be raising the prices for both its enterprise software and its cloud services in the UK.

The price increase will go into effect as of January 1 2017 making it more costly for businesses to use the company's services. Microsoft's enterprise software will go up in price by 13 per cent and its enterprise cloud services will cost an additional 22 per cent.

The company explained the reasons behind the price increase in a blog post, saying: “Effective January 1, 201, we will be increasing British pound pricing to harmonise prices for enterprise software and cloud services within the EU/EFTA region. We periodically assess the impact of local pricing of our products and services to ensure there is reasonable alignment across the region and this change in an outcome of this assessment. These changes are similar to the recent harmonisation adjustments to pricing in Norwegian krone and Swiss franc we made in April 2016.”

Though prices will increase for the company's enterprise offerings, consumer software and consumer cloud services will not be affected by these changes.

In its blog post, Microsoft noted that some enterprises with previous agreements with the company will be protected from price increases, saying: “For business customers, these changes will not affect existing orders under annuity volume licensing agreements for products that are subject to price protection.

“For example, customers with Enterprise Agreements have price protection on previously ordered enterprise software and cloud services, and will not experience a price change during the term of their agreement.

Similarly, business customers with cloud commitment subscriptions such as Office 365 also receive price protection during their subscription term, which is normally twelve months from the start of paid subscription.”